Juda Kiss
by q.feuille7
Summary: "It's just the three of us against the world," Wally used to tell Robin and Roy as the three of them stared up at the stars, but they never took it literally. Now the three boys have to rely solely on each other if they want to survive both their old team mates and the Justice League. But they will never quit, after all they are superheros and more then that they are best friends.
1. Chapter 1

**So longer summary: It has been three months since Robin, Kid Flash and Speedy turned bad. It all started without warning when Robin double crossed Aqualad, nearly costing him his life. It was about this time that Roy resurfaced after being missing for months and they teamed up. Wally joined shortly after, leaving his friends and family behind without a word. The three of them dropped off the grid for a while despite the League's best effort. During this time rumors surfaced about the heroes that had 'gone bad.' Trying to stay under the radar the three off them took on odd jobs for shady folks. It wasn't until recently that things got bad, and when they did everything changed. The Young Justice team wants desperately to believe that their friends have a good reason, but it is getting harder to trust them. (I really hope you like it.)**

Prologue-One week before the start of the story

 **11:00 P.M. Young Justice HQ**

Artemis sighed as she walked into the cave, ignoring the annoying mechanical voice that announced her arrival. She wasn't in any mood for mechanical voices or whatever else went along with being a hero. From the second she woke up she knew this wasn't her day, in fact the last few months just hadn't seemed to be her day either.

Even though Mr. Smarty-pants and Baywatch could get on her nerves they were still part of her family. And with one as screwed up as hers she couldn't afford to be picky. She had grown so used to their presence that now that they were gone she felt… annoyed. Roy on the other hand she had called months ago. It was officially on Justice League records that she expected him to knife her in the back. He just had a shifty look about him. Still when push came to shove it was Robin that did the backstabbing. Kaldur had nearly died. If someone hadn't found him when they did the team would have to start holding tryouts to fill all the empty spots.

She frowned, the whole thing bothered her. Of all people to turn rough she had a hard time believing it was Robin and Wally.

Robin was the freaking son of the guy who single handedly ran both the team and the league. Robin had been doing this since he was eight. He put completing the mission above everything and everybody. Why of all things did he choose to go dark side? Wally on the other hand stumped her for different reasons. His life was literally an after school special. He was so transparent you could use him as a window, a really annoying window. Wally was the definition of wearing his heart on his sleeve. Simply put he had no filter. Roy aside if she had to pick the two people she had trusted most it would have been the two of them.

Somehow without her knowledge the team had managed to work their way into her heart. It honestly made her want to cry, and everyone knew Artemis didn't cry. So instead she got pissed.

 _Perimeter Breach in sector 3_ the robot voice announced annoyingly as the alarms began to blare loudly, echoing throughout the cave.

She cussed again louder this time. Her day was just getting better and better. She pulled her bow out of her quiver fastening the string with trained quickness.

"Megan, Kaldur, Conner, I need back up." She yelled hoping one of them was home. Sprinting over to sector three as fast as she could manage she shot out a few of the blaring alarms on the way. Intruders she could deal with, however the symphony of dying animals was getting on her nerves.

"Freeze." She yelled drawing one of her many arrows and angling it at the intruder. They were dressed in subtle stealth colors sitting at the main computer typing furiously. They didn't look up on her appearance only pissing her off more. Instead they continued to type faster than her eyes could keep up with.

"I said freeze." She yelled again firing a warning shot at their feet. This gained her some attention. The figure turned around slowly raising their arms slowly in surrender.

"Robin?" She gasped, the breath knocked out of her from shock. After all these months he showed up to just casually hack the main computer. And of all things he broke in, they did have a front door.

"What the hell?" She breathed, it was the only things that seemed to fit. Still she refused to lower the bow even an inch, she was not going to end up like Kaldur. Robin just stared at her his face unreadable.

"Robin, what are you doing?" She asked hating how her voice sounded almost weak. Instead of answering Robin looked through her upon the approaching team mates. Mega, Conner and Kaldur approached quickly hissing loudly when they saw who the intruder was.

"What are you doing?" Superboy screamed mirroring Artemis. However his rage was barely concealed. Artemis believed he felt the same about the betrayal as she did, annoyed. Megan and Kaldur were a different story. They were both too kind and trust to understand that they had been played.

"Robin, you are outnumbered, don't make this any harder than it has to be." Aqualad said slowly trying to keep the situation calm and appeal to the rational side of his friend.

Robin glanced at the four of them all with their weapons out and fists raised. He surely was out numbered.

"Get on your knees." Aqulad said, keeping his even tone even though tension could be heard. When Robin didn't move Superboy got angry.

"Now." He yelled taking a menacing step towards him. Artemis cocked her bow as well bringing it up to focus on his head.

To their surprise Robin dropped to his knees fluidly like they had ordered. Artemis blinked in shock, she had never expected Robin would listen to them. Kaldur gestured with a jerk of his head for her to approach him. After all if something went wrong she could kill him the fastest. So she walked closer tension in her shoulders, waiting for a reaction from Robin that never came. One second she was approaching him ready to shoot at the slightest movement, and then she was on her back panting. In a huge gust of wind she was knocked onto her back. For the millionth time that day Artemis cursed everything as she sat up robbing her chest painfully. There at the center of the room stood Wally West. He stared down at her passively, his face mirroring Robins. The little pick had pushed her down. Kaldur and Superboy rushed forward to take him out.

Megan gave a warning yell but it was too late. In the confusion of Wally's appearance they had forgotten about Robin, a lethal mistake. Artemis reached for her bow, but it was too late.

In a flash Robin pulled the flash drive out of the computer. Shielding his eyes he pulled a flash grenade from his belt. An arrow whizzed by his head, but it was already too late. The impact of the explosion threw its trajectory off. She screamed with the rest of the team as the shock wave sent her to the floor, debris hitting her skin painfully.

"Is everyone alright?" Kaldur asked shakily.

"Megan?" Superboy called worriedly.

Artemis turned her attention away from them to the empty room. The computer was smashed to bits, it had taken the brunt of Robin's bomb. Of course the two of them were nowhere to be seen. Grabbing her bow once more she raced out of the room. No way in hell they were getting away.

Sprinting as fast as she could she ran through the main room and out the back entrance? There in the light from the cave stood Wally West glaring at her but refusing to move. Why was he still here? Where was Robin? Questions circled her mind but she pushed them aside for now.

"Freeze." She told him warningly.

Of course he didn't listen, he never does. He didn't before he turned bad so why would he now? Without further hesitation she fired a shot directly at his chest. He dodged this one easily and all the others she shot at him without much effort, just like sparring. However unlike sparring he didn't taunt her. The silence was eerie.

"Wally Why are you doing this? What reason do you have?" She begged temporarily halting her fire. He didn't even try to explain, instead he stared back at her coldly.

For a few moments the two stared at each other coldly, like mortal enemies. Clearly their powers were too evenly matched. Kid Flash couldn't come closer without being shot, but Artemis couldn't shoot him either if he kept moving around like he was. In the end it was the static of his radio that snapped him out of it. "Kid Flash, mission completed, head back." Robins emotionless voice came through the speaker. For the first time since he had got here she saw emotion on his face. His tense shoulders lifted slightly and the crease in his brow softened. But before Artemis could even process what just happened he turned to go. Without even glancing at her he made a move to sprint away.

At that moment something in Artemis snapped. She had enough of family members leaving her, she thought it wouldn't happen again, that this time would be different. But once again they were leaving her. Without registering what she was doing she fired an arrow directly at him. She watched as a feeling of dread came over her. That shot wasn't a warning, it was meant to kill. Wally's green eyes went big as he spun his body in attempts to save his vital organs. In the end it did hit him, lodging itself through his calf with a horrible crunch.

He gave a strangled moan of pain a he collapsed onto the ground writhing. Artemis was frozen for a second as what she had just done came rushing back to her. She shot Baywatch. Lowering her bow she took a step towards him. "Artemis what are you doing, he's getting away." Kaldur yelled running up behind her, shocking her out of her trance. But before either of them could move Robin skidded up on a motorcycle heading straight towards them. The two of them barely had time to jump out of the way. He pulled to a stop suddenly acting as a wall between the two of them and Kid Flash.

"Get on." He yelled at his injured friend. Groaning at the effort Kid Flash raced towards the bike hoping on the back grabbing his friend for support.

Recovering once again Artemis fired shots rapidly after them as Kaldur tried to pursue on foot. But Robin's erratic movement and pace was too fast for them. The motorbike gracefully zipped in and out of the surrounding trees. They were getting further and further ahead by the second, still she pursued them. It wasn't until they had vanished completely from sight that Kaldur placed an anchoring hand on her shoulder.

"Artemis stop, their gone."

She yelled in frustration shooting the trunk of a nearby tree in anger. After a few minutes of wasting arrows she lowered her bow. "What now?"

Kaldur frowned and looked up at the stars. "Now we call the League."

 **1:00 A.m. Metropolis outskirts, abandoned house**

Not bothering to knock Roy flung open the door walking into the run down house. He dropped his duffle bag onto the table next to Robin who didn't look up.

"How did it go?"

Roy grunted in response going over to the fridge to raid the empty shelves.

"The jobs done." He said pulling out a half-eaten can of black beans. "How about yours?"

Robin kept his gaze on the computer screen in front of him as he continued to type furiously. "It could have been worse."

"It also could have been better." Wally groaned from the coach as his pain meds began to kick in.

"What happened to him?" Roy asked giving up on finding a spoon and consigned himself to eating his dinner with a plastic knife.

"Artemis shot hm." Robin said turning away from his computer to look at his injured friend.

"Is it bad?" Roy asked walking over to prod Wally's foot.

"Yes." Wally moaned as he slapped Roy's hand away

"Robin shook his head, it could have been a lot worse, for the most part it missed his muscle and bone but it did tear it up a little, he's going to need a few days to recover."

Roy gave Wally a sympathetic look, "What were you even still doing their? The plan was for you to escape while Robin rigged the explosives." Wally shrugged looking away from his friends clearly not willing to answer. Roy sighed and went to sit down across from Robin.

"What's happening?" He asked as Robin adjusted the ear bud.

"They found my bugs?" He said his voice impassive. Also Super Boy destroyed a wall.

Roy sighed resting his head on the worn table. Robin glanced over at his sluggishly bleeding arm in concern. "Do you want me to get that for you?" Roy shook his head, "Its fine, what I want is some food."

"You and me both!" Wally yelled from the coach.

"I hate to be the one to remind you but we are broke." Robin said leaving his precious computer to get the first aid kit despite Roy's protests.

"Yeah, like that's stopped us before." He said wincing as Robin began to stich his wound closed.

"Well Wally's out of Commission and I am a little busy right now."

Roy grumbled again pulling him sleeve back down, "Yea, I'm on it."

Being an ex-Hero came with many draw backs but the skill set was the exact same. It surprised the three of them how easily their training carried over to the 'their side' of life. Pickpocketing and stealing were just the tip of the iceberg.

"Be careful." Robin called over to him as he made his way back to his laptop.

"Aww, Robin looooves you." Wally laughed, still loopy from the pain meds. "That's okay, I loooove you too."

Robin rolled his eyes at his friend as he continued typing. Roy sighed as he pulled on his coat wincing slightly from his fresh injury. Purposely adjusting his watch so it wasn't muffled by the coat he grinned slyly. "Soon we will have all the money we could ever want." He told his friends as he ducked out into the cold night again.

Wally stared at Robin with a mindless smile, "Then we can go to the base thingy and play with the big computer and…"

"Wally!" Robin yelled shooting out of his chair causing it to fall over. "You are high as a kite, you took way too many pain meds, let's get you too bed."

Wally laughed again staring intently at the ceiling as Robin helped him off the coach and down the hallway to his room. He began cracking up hysterically when they passed a peeling wall.

"You are an odd one." Robin said but smiled fondly none the less. For the first time all day he was content. The big house wasn't so lonely when he was with these two knuckle heads.

 **2:00 A.M Young Justice HQ**

Batman narrowed his eyes at the destruction, the main computer was totally trashed. Seeing his confusion Miss Martian filled in the banks. "The computer was destroyed by the flash Grenade, it was meant for us but it took a big hit."

Batman shook his head disagreeing, "No, he destroyed the computer purposely to hide what information he took from it, he just made it look like an accident so no one would get suspicious. The team stared at Batman surprised. Robin was really serious here, this wasn't a break in this was war.

"Was their anything else?"

Aqualad nodded, "one of them, my moneys on Robin, bugged the cave." He handed Batman a tiny hearing device. "We deactivated them."

Batman inspected it carefully. "Are you confident you found all of them?"

Aqualad nodded. "What was the point of evesdropping?"

Batman shook his head once again, "Another distraction." He looked around the room spotting an air vent. Walking over to the wall he tore off the cover, unsurprised when it came off so easily. He moved aside so Green Arrow could shine his flashlight into the dark vent. The team sucked in a breath quickly. Dozens of Robin's explosive disks lined the vent going further back then their eyes sight did. He was truly trying to kill them.

"Why are they doing this? Super boy yelled losing control of his anger. "First they back stab us now they're out right attacking us, WHY?"

Black Canary sent him a warning look to control his anger but he was too far gone to listen. Instead Kaldur put a hand on him shoulder as a gentle sign to silence himself. Super boy shrugged the hand off but closed his mouth all the same.

"What are they trying to do?" Artemis asked after carefully counting to ten in her head to calm herself. Clearly the angry response wasn't getting them anywhere.

This time it was Black Canary's turn to talk. "We do not know, but this was clearly a direct attack on the team, from here on out they must be regarded like an enemy. They knew exactly what would happen when they attacked. They must now be ready to deal with the consequences."

Megan tried to protest but she was stopped by her uncle who shook his head sadly.

Wonder Woman shifted her attention to Batman, "Shouldn't we get the bombs out, they could go off at any time, he might find out we discovered them."

Green Arrow laughed humorlessly, "He already knows." He promised catching everyone's attention.

Batman held up another listening device that was hidden among the explosives, the green power button was blinking furiously causing the teens to freeze, Robin had heard the whole thing

.

 **Wow that took me more hours than I would like to admit. Please Please review it would make me so happy** **This story is supposed to be more Dick/Wally/ Roy centered but it defiantly has A LOT of the team and the league in it. This chapter didn't really do a good job showing that. I don't know how Artemis became the main character in this chapter, but I looove her. Lol I dropped so many waaay too obvious hints in this chapter that it physically hurts me. Please tell me what you think about it and if you think the boys are still on the Teams side or if they really betrayed them.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank everyone who read this sooo much** **I hope you liked it because it's sort of like my child. Anyway I was thinking ArtemisXWally RobinXBabs and maybe RoyXCheshire. But that would come much later because it isn't really a romance story so much as action/ friendship/mystery. Poor broken leg Wally.**

 **.**

One Week Later

 **Smallville- 11:00 AM**

Robin crouched against the ledge patiently. He pressed himself closer to the wall so not to be seen. On the street far below him he could see figures talking quietly. Balancing perfectly he slid along the ledge of the building to get a closer look. He couldn't risk being seen but then again it surprised him how infrequently people looked up. Still he needed to be closer. The job wasn't so he could play peek-a-boo with these men, it was called spying. And spying required a certain element of danger.

He glanced down below him at the ground. Unfortunately the street was practically bare, there would be nothing for him to hide behind without being caught in the harsh headlights of the many assembled cars. Without a sound he pulled out a hook from his belt and dove from the building ledge. As he fell he slid the hook along the side of the building waiting for it to go deep enough to stop his fall. Eventually it did but on a lower story. Using the hook as a handhold he dangled off the side of the building completely at the mercy of the wind. He was still high enough so not to be caught in the streetlights but now at least he was in range of the men.

It would be so easy to take this man out right now and then just simply go home, but once again that wasn't the mission. Robin repressed a sigh, batman hated it when he sighed. But then again batman wasn't here now. Unfortunately neither was Wally or Roy. With Wally out of commission the two of them had to take on even more jobs, meaning Robin had barely seen them these last few days. It wasn't like this was a two person job anyway, but it would still have been fun. Now he was stuck hanging off a building while these low level criminals pretended to know what they were doing. He felt like a whiny kid whose parent had stopped to talk to a friend.

"It is good doing business with you." The heavy man said with a sly grin.

"Same here." The other relented with a similar grin.

Robin perked up, was something cool actually happening? He watched intently as the separate gangs piled into their cars. It was time to move.

It would be so easy to bash their skulls in and slip a tracker on one of them, unfortunately that would tip them off. Absolutely nothing could tip these men off that they were being followed. Batman had taught Robin that not every mission was about winning, in the end the only thing that mattered was completing it, no matter the cost. Even now Robin lived by that rule. Despite the circumstances he knew it was going to keep them alive.

So instead of smashing into their cars and demanding the information he just followed them. Angling his grappling hook he detached from the wall swooping towards the nearest building. With his target in sight he ran along the roof of the building. The town might change but in the end buildings where just that, it was all the same to him. So as he easily vaulted off the roof of one complex to the next he couldn't help but smile. It had always been his favorite part of the job. Pretending nothing changed, no one died and no one left. Up here he could simply do what he was born to do, be an acrobat.

Racing along a rooftop cable he did a halfway cartwheel in order to wrap his hands around the entwined steel. Using it as a high bar he launched onto a lower pipe protruding from the neighboring building. Those thugs sure did drive like a granny, they were making this almost too easy.

He paused for a moment on the pipe as the gang leader got out from the car, he ordered a few of his men to follow him into the apartment complex. It didn't exactly look like a mob hang out but then again if you had the money to live in a place that could afford windowsill plants why not? Careful so not to lose them inside him propelled himself off the pipe grabbing the rusted fire escape above. Not even bothering to use the stairs he jumped from railing to railing.

His ear piece activate with an annoying amount of static.

"Robin come in, do you read me?" It was Roy.

Robin frowned slightly as he arrived on the desired platform. He ducked under the window sill able to hear as the gangsters filled into the apartment. Raising his head ever so slight to see through the dirty window pane he made out his desired target.

"Yea I'm here, what's up?" He asked ducking once again out of eyesight.

"Have you completed the mission yet?"

 _Here is the money from this week's drug trade._

"Almost." Robin said placing a small recording device onto the sill.

"Well we need you back at base, it may be compromised."

Robin raised his eyebrow, "You mean the League?"

"No, worse it's the Team."

Robin groaned, were they always this annoying? Was this how the bad guys felt when they were defeated by a bunch of kids? Then again Robin had never considered how the Teams refusal to rely on the Justice League was such a weakness. Their childish need to prove themselves was what caused them to fail more often than not. Of course Robin had once been a part of that 'childish need', not that it mattered now. Still some subjective thinking now and then could work wonders..

"How did they find out?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Roy sighed clearly irritated. "Me and Wally are heading back now but you are by the far the closest and he is still a little slow because of his injury."

"And by slow you mean?"

"HIIII ROB." An obnoxious voice projected strait into his ear.

Robin cussed silently looking up to see if the gangsters had heard it. Still they continued studiously counting their cash.

"I mean I picked him up and we are currently heading back to HQ." Roy said equally annoyed.

"Don't bother." Robin said, I'll grab the gear and meet up with you guys.

"You'd better." Roy warned, his voice clearly uncertain. It was almost cute how he tried to keep tabs on both the younger boys, especially if cute meant annoying as all hell.

Not waiting for any more of Wally's boundless energy to break his ear drum he tuned them out.

 _Next job for us is to expand our reach to the northern shores, that way we can…. . . ._

Robin rolled his eyes at their cliché conversation. At least Gotham criminals had class, these guys were just so classic textbook. Rule one for villains, never reveal your entire plan before you even start. Plans are like stories, and if you give away the ending before they begin they are doomed to fail. The power was in the unknown, the greatest weapon anyone had was the element of surprise. There was no way to plan for that. At least that was what Robin believed.

Taking the recorder from the ledge he replayed it quietly to make sure he got the important things, evil pan, location, fire power yada yada yada.

He had hoped the men would leave quickly but instead they stayed to talk. Apparently promises of beer had overruled the other generic henchmen thing they had to do that night. So Robin lay there on the fire escape under the window sill listening to drunk men grow drunker. However his fear that they would never leave wasn't realized. After a drunken suggestion of visiting a late night strip club the group of men happily got up, practically spilling over each other. Still Robin stayed a few moments longer to make sure they would not be returning any time soon.

Using his stealth training he expertly picked the lock on the antique window with a sharpened knife. Creeping into the messy apartment he scanned the area for any useful information. Nothing. Apparently the leader was smarter then he appeared. Although he was still not smart enough to upgrade his security. If he hadn't been spying on them for the last few hours he might have actually been stumped. But he hadn't listened to them talk about their 'bitches' for nothing. Carefully he pulled up the loose floorboard hidden under the door matt. Inside was all the gangs' secret information. Everything from floor plans to a list of their contacts information.

"You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket." Robin muttered under his breath as he began to copy the documents.

"Mission completed, heading back to base now." He told Wally and Roy over the com link.

Now he just had to find a way of holding the team off.

 **2:00- Metropolis outskirts (HQ)**

To everyone's surprise when Kaldur kicked down the door it stayed down. There was no alarm system, no gun shots, no nothing. In fact Kaldur barley had to do anything, the door was already broken.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Megan asked nervously.

Artemis nodded firmly. "It has to be. "She pulled out her bow cautiously.

The house was surprisingly small and run down, everything seemed to be breaking. But more importantly, there seemed to be no one living here. All signs of life were completely gone.

"Well I think you got it wrong." Conner growled annoyed.

Artemis only checked a small screen from her bag. She walked over to the mouth eaten coach and pushed it aside with all her might. There on the floor where the couch use to be was her arrow, tinted brown with drying blood. Bloody bandage were also scattered next to it. She winced once more quickly turning away.

"They know were here." Aqualad said pulling out his twin rods. "They have covered their tracks." Continuing on to the hallway they checked each of the room.

The first was clearly Wally's. Even though there was no physical evidence it was a mess, food wrappers were scattered everywhere along with more dried blood. Still the room was clean, whatever stuff that had been here was now gone. So they continued on to the next room splitting up to cover more ground. Artemis and Kaldur paired up to search the next bedroom while the alien couple continued down the hall to check upstairs.

"I think its Speedy's room." She remarked dryly as he uncovered yet another hidden arrow under the worn mattress.

"Nothing over here either." Kaldur said checking under the loose floorboards.

Artemis frowned surprised as her fingers brushed something smooth cushioned between the mattresses. She pulled out an old wrinkled picture.

There stood what she could only assume to be Robin, Wally and Speedy. The three of them looked so young. Speedy and Robin stood on the side while Wally smiled from the middle his arms over the other two's shoulders. They were all smiling their childish faces reflected no darkness or worry. Still they were in full costume despite their age. Speedy looked to be a pre-teen while Wally looked barley over ten and Robin looked like he still needed babysitting.

"I didn't know the three of them were friends?" Artemis said showing Aqualad the picture.

He frowned examining it closely. "This was taken years ago, they must have known each other since childhood."

Artemis was silent for a moment as she looked at the picture in her hands. The four of them were relatively new heroes. Conner and Megan were pretty self-explanatory, Kaldur maybe not but he only just started protecting the land as well as the sea. And her, she was still new at this whole hero thing. But the three of them had been doing it for years before any of them.

"So why would they choose now to snap, it makes no sense."

"On the contrary, I think it's starting too." Kaldur said handing the picture back to Artemis.

Before she could ask what he meant there was a huge explosion sending both of them onto the ground. She groaned on agony from the floor as she held her bleeding ears painfully, too dazed to move.

"Miss Martian, Superboy." Aqualad screamed reacting faster than her.

"Were fine." Came the reluctant mental response. "Super boy protected us."

"What happened?" Artemis gasped sitting up.

"Another of Robin's explosives." Super boy growled clearly annoyed. "He had it set to explode the minuet we walked into his room."

Kaldur stood up quickly, "I have to put out the fire." He said as smoke drifted lazily down the hallway and the smell of burning singed their noises. Clearly the explosion had caught the wooded floor on fire.

Artemis only grabbed his arm to stop him. "Don't bother." She told him, "There's nothing here."

"But." He glanced around quickly.

She only shook her head. "Kaldur their gone."

He sighed but reluctantly agreed, "Team we are heading back."

Artemis stared at the picture in her hand at the smiling children. Before Aqualad could notice she slipped it away in her pocket.

 **4:00 AM Baltimore-Coffee house**

"Did you ever find out how they managed to track us?" Roy asked as he tiredly drank his coffee. They were all tired, nobody had slept in 40 hours.

Robin nodded resting his head on his hands. "It was Artemis, she embedded a tracker in the arrow she shot Wally with." Of course he had bugged the house, if it wasn't obvious he had trust issues. Issues that batman had carefully ingrained into him.

Wally took a break from shoving food into his mouth to look up.

"Artemis?"

Robin nodded tiredly, "We may have under estimated them."

Roy smirked humorlessly, "It appears that is going around."

"What's our next move?" Wally asked taking a break from his food.

"Gotham."

Wally nearly chocked on his food as Robin spit out the coffee.

"NO!"

"Are you insane?"

Roy sent them both warning looks to calm down before they would say something that they couldn't take back.

"This is an order directly from our employers, they want to see if we can handle the Justice League. And we can." Speedy spoke slowly but his tone was dangerous.

Robin nodded after a second calming down. He glanced down at his wrist rubbing it slowly.

"Of course we can." He said with a sigh bringing his hand down. "But we are going to need a plan."

"A good one." Wally said staring at his food in sudden disinterest.

"So what's the mission?"

 **4:00 AM Gotham- Bat Cave**

Bruce moaned as he carefully wrapped his ribs together. It had been a long night of crime fighting. Besides that the Young Justice team decided to take matters into their own hands...… again. He could understand their need to find their old team mates. But if they really wanted to get to the bottom of this they should include the Justice League. The League was far more skilled and could investigate better than the team, even if that meant they got sidelined.

Bruce could feel Alfred's tired gaze on him. The old butler had been sighing a lot more than usual in the three months since Dick's disappearance.

Bruce had always taught Dick that the most important thing when hiding a secret was too act normal. Cover stories and disguises would only get you so far. The best thing to do was act like you had no secret. So in the weeks that led up to the betrayal Dick hadn't been withdrawn or secretive. On the contrary he took batman's words to heart and became an open book. He stopped all the secret investigating he had been doing and threw himself into school and the team. Still despite his best efforts Batman was the world's greatest detective. He knew something was up with his ward. Unfortunately Batman was far too busy to confront him or even worry about it. If Dick was acting strange that meant something was bothering him, and whatever it was would probably be resolved without Batman ever hearing about it. That was how it worked in the bat family, if someone was upset then they should get over it. Although after this Bruce might want to consider seriously changing that rule.

"That will be all for tonight Alfred." Bruce said tiredly.

"But sir?"

He raised an injured arm to silence his protests. "It's all right."

The butler nodded curtly composing himself carefully. "Very good sir." He said bowing to leave.

Bruce watched him leave patiently, He then turned his attention to the ceiling of the cave. Whatever trouble Dick had gotten himself into he could handle, even if that trouble was him. No matter what the circumstances were Batman had his loyalties, and Robin had his. For the time being things would have to stay like this, it was clear he wasn't coming back anytime soon. After all even though he was a guardian to the kid he was also a guardian to the city and that came first, it always would.

Sighing tiredly he took out the bug that Robin had left in the explosives from his invasion on Mount Justice. After all the chaos at the mountain nobody had thought to question where it disappeared too. The green light was still on, blinking slowly. Robin decided to keep it on even after it had fallen into Batman's hands. Bringing it carefully to his lips he paused.

"Dick, whatever happens in the end, are you prepared to live with the consequences?"

.

 **Please comment, it would make me the happiest person ever! Sorry if there are any spelling errors or discrepancies. There are more hints in this chapter especially involving wrists, watches and shoes lol. Also they have no money for food because they are spending it all on supplies for missions, that and lots of stealing. But it is way easier to get food for free then bombs. Thank you for reading**


	3. Chapter 3

**Important note: Starting tomorrow I will be in Japan until the 22. I will try really hard to update at least once when I'm gone but I am not sure if I will be able to please stick with it, I promise to update twice a week when I get back. Thank everyone so much for your review they made me so happy** **I know the whole suspense thing about whether they're really evil or not is annoying but I promise the end reveal will be worth it. It is also supposed to be a mystery about what their motives are and what they are working towards. Anyways I really hope you like it.**

 **Pippalina- You are totally onto something! But I don't think there is enough information yet to figure it out.**

 **Guest 1- Robin defiantly heard it even if he is multitasking, he keeps very careful tabs on his spying bugs**

 **Guest 2- The part about shoes isn't in there yet but there is defiantly wrists and watches**

 **Pipe Dream- Those are really good theories, I wish I had thought of one of them! I can't say if you're right or not yet (The whole suspense thing) but I can say there are no rope burns on any of their wrists, ankles or anywhere. Thank you so much for your comments!**

 **8:00 AM Gotham Subway**

"Dick, whatever happens in the end, are you prepared to live with the consequences?"

Robin frowned, that was a stupid question. Of course he wasn't. If someone you love dies because of you there is no way to prepare for that.

They were in deep, too deep to even see the surface anymore. That's why they had to make their choices now when their minds were strong and their conscience clear. So in the moment that they lose everything they will no longer have the option to quite. That's what they were doing now, burying themselves so deep that they couldn't even think of returning.

Pointedly choosing to ignore batman he took the earbud out of his ear unplugging it from the laptop. He ignored Wally's questioning look from beside him and continued to type furiously. The three of them were dressed in regular clothes and aboard the subway which was currently speeding towards Gotham. They were all a little tense, they couldn't say it aloud but possibly having to fight the bat was a big deal.

Besides him Wally was obsessively humming while on his other side Roy was incredibly tense. Robin himself was feeling nervous but he used it as fuel to type faster. He sighed to himself as Wally's humming got louder when the speakers announced Gotham as their next stop.

"After this mission we will have a little time off." Robin said closing his laptop briefly so he could look at Wally. He was trying to calm the other one down before his Bat phobia became infectious.

"Since our last bae got compromised, we need to find a new one, any thoughts?"

Wally looked at Robin thoughtfully pausing his humming. "I always wanted to live in an abandoned train."

"Like the Boxcar children?" Asked Roy raising his eyebrow, clearly grateful for the distraction.

Wally nodded sheepishly.

Roy shrugged, "Personally I always thought that living on the top floor of an abandoned building could be fun."

Wally shuddered, "If by fun you mean possibly deadly and a health risk then yes, let's do that."

Robin rolled his eyes regretting bringing it up. He continued to type but thought it over.

"We could actually rent a place," He said slowly. After all it would be the last thing Batman would expect them to do.

"We can pay for it with all our imaginary money." Wally agreed happily although the idea of electricity and running water was appealing.

Roy snorted, "He does have a good point though, it's not like we are completely broke."

The money they had been earning from the low end jobs mainly went into their weapons budget. The downside of no longer having the Justice League as sponsors meant they now had to fund everything themselves. However it would only take another job or two to get a month's rent at some shabby little place. And on the plus side an apartment would be the last place the Justice League would look.

Wally grinned at the prospect of an actual house, all they had to do was make it through this mission. It did make him feel better that they were together on this one. They may have to face against Gotham's scariest savior but at least they wouldn't be alone.

Their target was Gotham High, not to be mistaken for Gotham Academy. This was a lucky break for them, the last thing they needed was a show down with a pissed off Artemis Crock. It also wouldn't help their case if someone were to spot Dick in the first five minutes. Apparently even the bad guys could catch a break now and then. They had decided that the best course of action would be to stay on the subway until their stop. The last time Robin checked Bruce Wayne the million air philanthropist didn't take the subway. He may be the world's greatest detective but he was still just human.

"This is it." Robin said standing up as the sub rolled to a stop.

'Show no weakness' Roy mouthed to them silently as they got off the subway and began the make their way up the stairs. They blended in perfectly with the mob of people rushing off to work.

"Yay high school, even after I quite it still comes back to haunt me." Wally groaned as they approached the gated public school.

"I'll go break into records and hack their system." Robin said as he began to walk away from the group toward the side entrance."

Roy however pulled him back patiently. "Don't get ahead of yourself Robin." He reminded him. "I know you anxious about meeting you know who." He said adjusting his jacket so his sleeve fell over his wrists.

Robin shifted uncomfortable clearly wanting to start soon so they could all leave."

"We just need one last job, then we are done, all of us." He told him dropping the gentle hold he had on his upper arm."

What he neglected to mention was how dangerous that job was going to be. However it was a risk the three of them were defiantly aware of. They had been trying not to think too much about it. After all this had started so they could protect each other not watch themselves die.

"Then we can quite forever." Robin said a distant look in his eyes. "Leave this stupid cat and mouse game to somebody else."

Wally winced as he heard that. Robin was of course talking about the Hero Villain dynamic that seemed present no matter where they were. He wished he could say something to his friend or ask what he was really thinking but he knew he couldn't, not here and not now. But after all that was the goal right? Complete the job and then drop off the map, forever.

Roy nodded in agreement as Wally looked angrily at his feet. "Let's meet up here in half an hour." Roy said earning him small nods from his friends.

"Go team," Wally said.

 **8:30 AM- Somewhere in Metropolis**

.

The guard quickly stood at attention as his superior casually walked into the room.

"Any news on the three operatives?"

The guard relaxed his salute slightly and shook his head.

"Everything is on schedule, they should soon complete the assignment without any holdups." The guard reported.

"Any chance of you know who showing up?"

The underling shook his head," By the time he's back in the city they will already be long gone."

The superior frowned slightly, "That's a pity, I would certainly like to see what would happen."

"With all do respect sir, are you sure that is a good idea?"

His eyes turned steely, "Don't second guess me." He ordered harshly. "Besides our agents have to be able to survive against the Justice League for this to work."

The Guard nodded mutely. "What do you need them to do."

The superiors face broke into a big smile. "Let's give little Robin a fun assignment."

 **9:00 AM Gotham Public High school**

Wally dashed down the hallway as quickly as he could without super speed.

"I defiantly found the problem student." He yelled into his earpiece. "He was trying to attack a student."

Wally had been innocently wandering the hallways looking for any abnormalities when he caught the glint of a knife from the corner of his eye. There stood a lanky goth boy about to stab a girl while her back was turned. Acting quickly to save the poor unsuspecting girl he had tackled the kid from the side and started running thankful when he saw he was being followed.

"Well knock him out," Roy said his voice full of static.

"Get him away from people." Robin reminded him.

"I think I just found a few more." Roy said glumly, "It appears it's affecting more of them then we thought."

With both Roy and Robin occupied he was on his own. Wally cussed as the bell rang, in mere second the hallways would be flooded with kids an them everyone would see a violent troubled kid chasing a poor unprotected nerd and call the cops. If that happened the three of them were officially screwed.

As quickly as he could manage he ran up the ramp and burst through the doors leading to the huge auditorium. Luckily enough at this time of day it was abandoned. He glanced back at the boy who was chasing him instantly regretting it.

His eyes were huge and bloodshot and he was waving around a large switch blade. It may have just been Wally's imagination but he seemed to be running faster than a normal person would.

Still he shot down the rows of seats desperate to get away from the students line of sight. Ignoring the steps he jumped up upon the stage accidently super speeding a bit when he realized how close the other boy was to him. How was he that fast?

Wally froze for a second as he heard the theater doors creak open as a small group of students began to trickle in.

"Shitshitshitshitsht." Wally said to himself as he ducked under the certain both relived and scared as the boy followed him back stage. At the very least they avoided the student's attention.

Now trapped back stage he desperately glanced around for a place to deal with the kid without a chance of them being discovered. The last thing he needed was somebody finding an unconscious body and calling the police. He was also opposed to moving an unconscious boy for obvious reasons.

In the corner he noticed a ladder attached to the wall leading up to a door embedded in the wall. He would bet anything it led to the boiler room.

Without wasting another second he ran to the ladder jumping over the stacked chairs pushed against the bottom. He began to climb it as fast as humanly possible for someone gifted with average strength. The Goth boy was unfortunately gaining on him, after all Wally was made for running not climbing. It had never been his strong suit, he always got laughed at in gym class because of it. Climbing faster still, he crawled up to the last wrung holding on for dear life as he reached up and tried the door handle.

Just as the door creaked open to revel pitch darkness he felt the boy's knife sink deep into his calf. In agony he jumped from the ladder through the door landing on his stomach.

Wally scrambled away from the door and stood up on shaky legs as he limped off into the darkness of the room. It was far too dark to be able to see but he figured that it worked both ways. Now he could easily take the child out without much fuss. Inside he was secretly grateful it was only one kid. Despite the fact that he was just an average high school stoner there was no way he was normal. Whatever was affecting him was making him faster and stronger then humanly possible. He was like a rabid dog dosed up on steroids.

Still Wally was highly trained, he could defiantly take on this student without much difficulty. His speed and strength had caught him off guard and that was how the kid had managed to stab him. But now he knew the strength he wouldn't let it happen again.

He waited for his eyes to adjust in the darkness before he went to go deal with the boy. Unfortunately it was a luxury he didn't have. Wally yelped as something jumped on top of him pinning him down. He felt the weight of more bodies falling on him all trying to crush his throat or claw his eyes out. Terrified he shoved them off super speeding away until he smacked into one of the boilers. This defiantly wasn't good, he couldn't see a thing and apparently their eye sight was just fine. He could add 'seeing in the dark' to the list. Also it was defiantly more than just one.

Scrambling around in his pockets he pulled out his phone using it as a dim flashlight. What he was made him freeze in place. This was indeed the boiler room but it was much larger then he originally thought. The room went back much further than his eyes could see, the walls floor and ceiling all in solid concrete. But the part that had his heart racing in fear was the people surrounding him, their dead eyes watching him furiously. It wasn't just a dozen people, it looked like almost a hundred. How was Wally going to take on a hundred rabid students all by himself in the dark?

Out of shocked he dropped his phone wincing as it shattered on the dusty concrete floor.

"Red Arrow, Robin please come in, I'm trapped in the boiler room, I can't see a thing and there's too many of them." Still there was no reply from the earpiece. At that very second Wally realized how his life had just turned into a video game. Still he had the sense to remove his sneakers first. If he was going to get mauled by these possessed students he wanted to do it on his own terms. Using his super speed he tried to run around the room so the people couldn't keep up with him, unfortunately it was too dark to see and he kept running into walls and boilers. For the life of him he couldn't find the door or even another way out.

Without warning he was tackled by a group of ravage students. His knees crumpled as they began to lay into him. All of them gathered around him to beat him up. More and more joined the circle by the minute.

Wally curled into a ball to try and avoid the harsher beatings. 'Stupid Zombie school,' He thought desperately as he tried to crawl away.

Just then part of the huge room flooded with light as a dull bulb lit up over his head.

"Shut your eyes." A familiar voice commanded as something whizzed by his head embedding itself into the wall near his head. And he did just that as a huge flash occurred causing the rabid students to stumble backwards away from him.

"Robin?" He cried relived. As he raced towards his friend beating down the few students who managed to stumble towards him.

Robin laid down a small square device used to block frequencies, Wally recognized it immediately as knock out gas. Still it would serve its purpose to reset the student's brains. Kind of like a return to default settings button. Jumping over countless boilers he made it to his friend grabbing hold tightly as he fired a grappling hook at the ceiling next to a locked skylight.

"This is sort of a dawn of the dead situation." Robin said with a frown as the two of them were lifted off the ground towards the skylight. Arms reached for them but Wally kicked them away.

"You're telling me." Wally muttered as he watched his friend put his acrobat skills to use. Wally transferred his grip to the rope so Robin could limberly swing his legs to force the skylights plastic top open.

Wally crawled onto the roof laying out and enjoying the feeling of sunlight. He was still panting heavily after getting beat up by a bunch of insane students. Besides him he could hear robin once again jamming the skylight shut so the knock out gas would be contained.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he sat down besides his friend.

"That was way more intense then I was expecting." Wally replied still basking in the warmth of the sun.

Robin smiled slightly as he realized his friend was shoeless, but he didn't say anything. He had defiantly panicked more than he had let on. Then again considering Wally's crippling fear of Zombies or anything that resembled them it wasn't surprising. So instead he laid back against the roof and stared up at the sky. Despite everything it was still blue.

Neither looked up as Roy came and joined them on the roof.

"How did it go?" He asked.

"It could have been better." Wally said without opening his eyes. He was still a little whelmed as Robin would say.

"It could have been worse." Robin said sitting up.

Before the three could say anything else a small beeping sounded from Roy's bag.

The three of them looked at each other in panic, "Shit." They said as Roy scrambled to pull out a small flat screen.

"I trust the mission was a success." Said a man as the screen flickered to life showing an older man with a serious expression.

"Yes sir." The three of them said simultaneously.

"How is our little experiment going?"

"The frequencies too strong and the focus is too broad," Roy said without missing a beat, "It's driving the students insane and it reached more than the targeted class."

The man nodded thoughtfully, "We will have to work on precision and intensity as well then, after all this is the first trail of many."

"What's up with the freaky speed and strength of those people?" Wally asked before he could stop himself. His curiosity has gotten the best of him.

The man's eyes flickered to him but stayed gentle. "The device is designed to push people past their limit, the intensity of it over ride their usual limits. Because of it once they wake up they will not be able to move for a couple of days. We still have a long way to go until completion." The man sighed tiredly." Still we have decreased the intensity so when they wake up they will be functioning normally again."

"That will be all for today, we will handle the rest." The man said dismissing them.

The boys sighed as they once again laid out on the roof content to spend the rest of the day cloud watching.

"That was intense." Wally sighed starting to feel hungry again.

"Yea but this time the end will justify the means." Roy sighed as he stood up grimacing as his phone beeped.

"It's a mission." He sadi wrinkling his nose.

Wally and Robin groaned in frustration. "Another?"

Roy nodded suddenly becoming sullen, "For Robin," He said handing the younger boy the phone. "They need you to break into the batcave."

.

 **Dun Dun DUUUUUUUN Robin breaks into the bat cave. Anyways that chapter was long. I am so sorry but I don't have time to proof read because I really have to finish packing. Sorry for the spelling errors and mistakes. I will defiantly try to update but if I can't then there should be one on Monday the 22. Thank al of your for commenting please tell me what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm back! Sorry I know I should have updated sooner but mostly I've been sleeping , But I'm back and I promise to update every week. I hope last chapter was okay, it was a little different than I expected. It didn't do great, (I don't know if anyone saw it) but I hope this one is awsomer! There are a lot of hints in last chapter so I hope I didn't reveal too much. I am really bad at knowing what's too big of a hint and what's not enough. Anyway I also want to say sorry for making Wally a damsel in distress last chapter. Wally can defiantly kick butt but he was kind of at a disadvantage last chapter, he was blind, surprised and scared. I promise in the future he will be awesome sauce!**

 **.**

 **12:00 am Wayne Manor Gotham**

 **.**

"This is crazy," Wally repeated for the hundredth time that day. Robin gritted his teeth as he studied the manor with a pair of binoculars. There was no movement so far inside, that was good. Bruce was probably out on the streets now and Alfred… it was anyone's guess. With a sigh He dropped back behind the tree carefully tucking the binoculars away. It felt so strange to be out in the backyard in the middle of the night spying on his own house, or ex-house. He ignored the tightening of his chest, after all this is what he choose.

"Wally where's Roy?"

"On another Solo mission. If you need back up I'm all you've got." Came the snarky reply.

Robin smiled despite himself, "I guess that just motivates me not to get caught."

Wally snorted in amusement, "You know Batman scares the crap out of me, if you get caught I am not going to fight him."

Robin's smile widened at that but he quickly sobered up as he looked at the task ahead of him.

"Just think of apartment shopping." Wally reminded him as he started moving towards the manor. He made sure to stick to the shadows.

"You make it sound like were married." Robin grinned as he reached the house pressing up against it. The three had decided to go with the apartment plan. Although it sounded crazy strategically it was the last place the team would look. It would also be nice to have a home again.

"Well then you better get home soon or dinner will get cold." Wally said making his tone high-pitched as if he were a high maintenance housewife.

Robin fell into silence as he crept under the window sill and began to pick the lock. Unfortunately for him he first had to hack into the security system which was pretty high tech. Then again he had helped design it in the first place. When Batman returned he would defiantly know Robin had broken in, but hopefully he would be long gone by then.

Sliding the window open Robin crept in listening carefully for any signs of Alfred. What was that old man up to? Sensing no danger he crept down the hallway leading to the living room.

"Wally, what's the status on batman?"

"According to the news sightings he is still in Gotham crime fighting."

There was a moment of silence as Robin entered the main room where the entrance to the bat cave was. He brushed his fingers against the trigger hook.

"What will Batman do if he finds you?" Wally asked quietly.

Robin sighed as he looked up at the portrait of Bruce's parents above the fire. Bruce himself was not an unreasonable man. Batman however was, and when the situation got tough Bruce was nowhere to be found.

"I don't know." He said honestly tearing his eyes away from the portrait and pulling the lever. As the door opened static from his headset began cutting off whatever Wally was going to say. Bruce had made sure to secure the room from any outside sources. Meaning it was a radio free zone.

Crossing his finger Alfred wasn't in the cave he crept down the steps and headed over to the main computer. Bruce had changed the passwords on him. This was very unsurprising all things considering. Same old Batman. Unknown to Batman Robin had set up his own secret backdoor. After the huge fight a couple years back Bruce had gotten so angry he locked Dick out of the computer. It had taken Dick hours to hack his way back in. After that incident he had carefully set up the system to avoid anything like that ever happening again.

Careful to cover his tracks Robin located the desired file. As quickly as he could he began to download it onto a flash drive. Still it was a massive amount of data and it would take some time. He sighed and leaned back in the chair, if Batman showed up he was so dead. Something flashing caught his attention.

Leaving the flash drive to finish downloading he walked over to the workbench where an eavesdropping bug lay. He turned it over in his hand carefully. This was one of Batmans specialties, a new prototype. He remembered Bruce telling Alfred about it. It was able to transmit even when normal ones failed. The signal was stronger and able to transmit from further ranges. Robin looked up as he heard the caves outside door open. Cussing lightly he snatched the listening device off the bench and skidded over to the computer. It was at 90%, that wasn't good, he hid the loading bad and shut off the screen before ducking under the big desk. This was defiantly a worst case scenario. If he was discovered here then everything was over for them, neither Wally nor Roy would be trusted to finish the mission and he didn't even want to think about what Batman would do. He held his breath as Batman entered the cave.

From his angle he could only make out dark steel toed boots. Robin scooted back further under the desk as the boots came to a stop in front of the desk. They lingered there for a moment trying away steadily before heading further into the cave. Thankfully Batman had taught Robin how to stay calm in dire situations. It was this training that came in handy more than anything.

Risking it Robin peeked out from under the desk as Batmans shadow drifted further back. On his hands and knees he crawled out from under the desk and grabbed the flash drive from its port. As heavy footsteps approached he summersaulted across the floor behind the bat mobile. He could feel the engine still cooling down beneath his cheek.

"How was the night sir." Alfred asked as he came down the stairs to join Bruce in front of the computer.

"You certainly are back early."

"There's a new lead I had to verify." Bruce said with a sigh as he sunk into the chair in front of the computer, he had already changed out of his suit. Robin moved along the towards the cave still open cave door. If they could just look away for a second he would be free. He briefly considered explosives but there was no way Batman would fall for that.

"Do you have the data?" Bruce asked the elder man.

"I left it in the study, shall I fetch it for you?" Alfred questioned.

Bruce sighed impatiently, "No need, I will go get it."

Robin sat up straighter, he might just make it out of this after all. As long as he timed this perfectly he could escape. Alfred's eyes were not nearly as sharp as Bruce's.

He listened intently for the sounds of his mentors footsteps leaving the cave. They were soon followed by the outside exit beginning to close. This entrance was made for the Batmobile and it wasn't connected to the house. Waiting for Alfred to turn his back Robin ducked out from under the car and dove to the quickly closing door. He managed to roll under it before it shut squashing him under the immense weight of it.

He leaned against it panting as he squeezed the flash drive in his gloved hand. That was way too close.

"Wally." He panted, "Let's not do that again for a while."

.

 **12:00 AM Happy Harbor, Rhode Island**

.

"Don't you have school tomorrow?" Kaldur asked Artemis as he watched he stalk around the living room.

"There comes a point where you have to let it go." Kaldur reminded her firmly.

Artemis laughed bitterly at the irony. "Let it go, he stabbed you. Robin nearly killed you. We were supposed to be on the same side and they betrayed us."

Kaldur stared at her calmly as her voice rose to hysterics.

"We don't know what was going on in either of their minds." He reminded her. Their own reasoning may seem sound to each other.

"Do honestly still think that they are still on our side," She scoffed. Kaldur wasn't one block out the obvious for the sake of a happy ending.

He only sighed in response, Artemis was raw and untrusting. It would be her downfall. "Sometimes being part of a team means you have faith in your team mates, even when no one else will."

"Even when they try to kill you?" Screamed Artemis angrily.

"Yes," He told her not breaking eye contact.

She sighed calming down, her thoughts drifted back to the picture she had found of the three boys. At that moment she was shocked to realize she didn't actually know much about any of them.

"How long have you known them?" she asked Kaldur.

He frowned for a moment thinking back. "A few years why?"

"You want me to trust them right? Well shouldn't we learn more about them, it could explain things."

He thought about it for a second before sighing. Artemis had a point, it could help them in their investigation. Besides that it might help fill the void the team mates left.

"Alright, but if we do this we do it as a team, get Megan and Conner."

Half an hour later the four of them gathered around the computer as Aqualad typed away. Usually Robin handled the hacking, meaning without him they had no chance of getting classified information. So for the time being they would have to stick with the leagues shared files like for example security footage.

Conners eyes narrowed at the array of tapes dating back nearly four years ago. Kaldur clicked on the earliest file that had a much younger Wally pouting. The video flooded the screen springing to life when the mouse hovered over it.

A much younger Wally was following his mentor down the complicated mess of hallway. Instead of his usual costume he was dressed in his regular loose clothes.

"Why do I have to come with you?" Wally whined as he followed the flash. "You don't even let me come with you to fight crime."

Flash only laughed at the whine in his voice. "Yea well today you're just going to watch okay, NO interrupting, this is really important and I don't have time to take you home first."

Wally huffed but agreed. He stood there in awe as they came upon the other justice league members all talking quietly in the small room.

"Wally stay." Flash told him as he followed them into the meeting room.

Wally tried to run after his mentor eager to meet his childhood idols but Flash quickly shut the door trapping him in the hallway. The conference room was windowless and soundproof so Wally had no chance to overhear. He kicked the door in frustration.

"That's not going to help." A voice from behind him said.

Wally whipped around to see a young boy about ten years old in the corner. He was typing away on a laptop without even looking up. He was wearing dark glasses that covered his eyes from the world but his inky black hair was clearly visible.

"Who are you?"

This time the boy did look up, "Robin, and you must be kid flash. Do you want to get inside?"


	5. Chapter 5

**I am very sorry I forgot to update, I sort of forgot about this story. But upon re-reading it I think it is my favorite! It is so much fun to write. Please forgive the large gap, I know I said this right before I stopped updating but I will defiantly get better at doing it! Also I forgot to put it into last chapter but I wanted to say that Batman knows Robin was in the cave. He didn't know at the time but he figured it out afterwards, he also knows Robin stole his hidden microphone.**

Artemis, Kaldur, Megan and Conner were all gathered together in the caves tiny archive room watching the tape intently. It was Robin and Wally's first meeting.

While Wally seemed like his usual goofball self, Robin was completely different. Instead of the fun friendly Robin who loved mischief he was serious and sullen.

"Well?" Came the impatient Robin as he tilted his head slightly.

Instead of the response Robin wanted Wally's eyes went comically wide like a child in a candy shop. "You're Robin! That's so cool, I've always wanted to meet you. You're like my idol. Do you actually get to work with batman? What's he like?

Robin was silent for a moment as he stared at the older boy. He stowed the laptop away in his bag standing up.

"You're weird." He finally said only eliciting a laugh from the redhead.

"Can you really get me in there?"

The younger boy only gave a slight nod pulling a device from his pocket and firing it at the ceiling vent. It hit its mark with a small click as the boy turned away covering his ears. Before Wally had a chance to even ask what he was doing it exploded.

Granted it was a fairly small explosion but it was an explosion none the less. The bent and twisted metal grate fell to the ground uselessly with a loud clatter.

Wally coughed waving his arms as the smoke dispersed but to his surprise the other boy was already gone. He glanced around the room looking for any sign of him. A frown marred his usual happy face as he realized he just got ditched.

"Robin?"

"Well are you coming or not?" The familiar voice questioned as Robin popped his head down from the new hole in the ceiling.

Wally's eyes once again went wide. "How did you get up there?"

"Magic." Robin grinned slightly. The first one they had seen since meeting Wally. His smile was much more guarded then it was now but it was still a smile.

"Cool!" Wally breathed looking around the room for any sort of magic carpet. No seeing one he turned back to his new friend raising his arms.

"Pull me up."

The team watched as both boys disappeared into the grate. When it was obvious they weren't coming back to the room they eventually gave up.

"So we learned they met when they were little." Artemis stated dully. She would never admit it in front of them but that video had honestly cheered her up. Seeing her old friends made her happier then she had been in a long time. Beside she had always wondered how they met. When they first started Robin and Wally seemed unusually close while everyone else were practically strangers.

"We also learned Robin used to have an attitude problem." Conner grumbled crossing his arms over his chest and turning away.

"He didn't have attitude, he was just sad." Megan explained causing to team to look at her.

"How do you know that?"

She shrugged casually. "I can just tell. My powers allow me to read people's faces more clearly than normal people can."

"I don't see how it matters." Super boy burst out. "They betrayed us. They choose the other side. So I don't see how it matters if they used to be friends or not."

"I understand your pain my friend." Kaldur said calmly placing his hand on the teens shoulder. "But it seems we may have overlooked something in our time together. We still as of yet don't have a motive, reason, or explanation. And despite the entire league's best efforts we are no closer to getting one. If any answers are within our grasp I would like to find them. As it stands I don't think I will be able to let the issue go."

Artemis stayed silent as Megan put a comforting hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. Kaldur was right. She had a feeling they all felt the same way. No matter what the outcome they couldn't rest until they had at least found some answers.

"Fine, what do you want me to do?"

.

 **1:00 Bludhaven -(New HQ)**

Wally moaned as he flopped down on the couch of their apartment. The earnings of their last job had been completely funneled into this tiny apartment. Leaving them far too broke to buy furniture or anything like that. Everything they had they had gotten or stolen from abandoned buildings, including the couch he was currently laying on. Still it was a beautiful feeling to once again have a home. Out of all the things he had missed having some place to come home to was at the top of the list.

The three of them had undergone one exhausting mission after another. They had been so busy he had hardly seen either of them lately. As for his part he was sent on a bunch of insane solo missions with low success rates and high stakes. Still being either to broke or busy to get food or sleep was starting to take its toll on him. Now things had changed, they had proved themselves to their employers only to start undergoing new harder missions all for the same purpose.

Taking his chance now Wally closed his eyes not even trying to make it to his bed. For the first time in a long time he fell into a dreamless deep sleep. It felt nice to escape his worries, even if it was only for a little bit. He had no idea how long he slept but it must have been a long time because when he opened his eyes. It was once again dark.

Robin stood in the middle of the room his eyebrows were drawn together in clear worry. On the beaten down table behind him lay Roy. From the looks of things he was unconscious.

At the sight of bright red blood Wally sat up but quickly regretted it as the bruises from his latest mission caught up to him.

"Is he okay?"

Robin quickly glanced over at him like he had forgotten Wally was there. "Yea, he will be okay." He said after a moment as he pulled his gloved off.

Wally watched in silence as Robin began to fix up Roy, doing everything he could with their limited first aid kit. Wally had always admired Dick's ability to keep calm in situations such as this. As a hero it was expected of all of them but it was the one thing Wally had never quite been able to do. Sure, he could fake a calm level headed approach but he never got it the way Roy and Dick did. To Roy's credit he was much older , but Dick had been doing it since he was nine years old.

Sometimes Dick scared him. Much less now than when they first met, but there were still times when his face would go blank and all emotion would drain awzy. In that moment he would become just like batman. His friends ceased to be his friends and instead turned into tactical risks.

"Robin, what's the matter?"

The black haired boy bit his lip as he tightened the bandages on Roy's shoulder. He remained silent until he finished working.

"Roy has a meeting today with our employers."

Wally glanced to the unconscious form on the table. There was no way he was going to be well enough to go; it would be a miracle if he even woke up today at all. Panic filled his stomach as he realized what Robin was trying to tell him.

"Can't we reschedule?"

"It doesn't work like that." Dick told him tiredly rubbing his eyes accidentally smearing some of Roy's blood on his face. "If he doesn't show up we void our contract. Besides, it's best if we keep Roy's injuries a secret, we don't want them to start thinking were not capable."

Wally frowned as he looked down at his shoes. Both he and Dick knew full well they already knew, but he understood why he still needed to say it. Still Wally would give anything to have a normal conversation with them, a real one. But there was no time for that now, with Roy bleeding out on the table and everything they had worked for in jeopardy.

So instead of telling Dick any of that he instead asked, "What do we do?" Because if there was one thing he knew about his friend it was that he always had a backup plan.

"I am going in his place." Robin said flattening his mask over his face as if trying to become his hero identity.

"No!" Wally objected immediately jumping up and instantly regretting it. "You don't even know where it is?"

"I do, Roy told me."

"I don't care, it's too dangerous, if they don't like you coming in his place they will kill you!"

Robin sighed tiredly, the sigh of an overworked man not of a small boy. "There's no choice here KF, I have to."

Wally ran his hands through his hair exasperatedly. "Fine, then I'm coming!"

"No you're not!" Dick insisted his eyes growing wide with fear. "I'm not going to risk both of us, if this goes bad."

He ignored his desperate look instead stepping closer to him, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. His other hand snaked down to Robin's utility belt, hooking his thumb into one of the notches. "We are in this together." He reminded him his voice steady and firm. He needed Richard to understand. "The three of us are going to finish this mission TOGETHER, and then we are going to leave, drop off the map where no one can find us and live out our lives TOGETHER!" He emphasized the last part. They were all going to survive; otherwise there would be no point.

Robin nodded slowly staring up at Wally conflict writing across his face. "Fine" He pulled away. "But you better write him a not, he's not going to be happy when he wakes up."

.

 **Gotham 3:00 A.M.**

 **.**

Artemis sighed in frustration as she kicked her costume off and flopped on her bed. She had to wake up in three hours for school. She had been awake most of the night shifting through the old tapes but hadn't found anything useful yet. She hoped one of the other team members was having better luck.

There was one thing she had stumbled across that seemed interesting, no new developments but it might have some background knowledge. It defiantly couldn't hurt for her to look at. It was dated three weeks after Roy's disappearance.

She groaned as she sat up, grabbing her laptop from her nightstand. She slid her flash drive into it finding the clip she had copied from the cave.

It began with Robin and Wally; the two of them were outside the cave's main entrance talking together. It was very late and the rest of the team had either gone home of went to bed. Artemis herself had left hours ago.

"I can't help it Rob, I'm worried. What if Roy's in trouble! What if he is hurt? It's been weeks we still have nothing to go on. Not even the League can find any traces of him."

"Wally, calm down, this isn't helping." Robin told his friend, his voice even and unusually serious.

It had the opposite effect on Wally as he threw his hands up in the air. "I can't calm down Dick! I'm not like you. I am not an amazing detective. I also can't go solo, fearlessly taking down syndicates all by myself like Roy does. I'm useless; I can't even help my friend when he needs it the most."

The two of them fell into a dead silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Wally leaned up against the mountain while Robin just tiled his head to star up at the stars, his face unreadable.

"I used to think that I could touch the stars." He said after a moment reaching up as if to try to grab one. Wally looked over at him curiously but remained silent so Robin continued.

"I was dumb and just a kid, but every time I saw them I thought that if I jumped just a little higher or reached a little further I could really do it!" He laughed humorlessly. "It was arrogant I know, but everyone always told me I was a prodigy. I spent so much time staring at the sky I never thought of what might happen if I fell."

"You haven't fallen yet." Wally reminded him gently.

Robin turned to face him, his eyes were impossible to see under his mask but he was smiling; only this time it looked like a painful smile. "I have." He promised his friend. "And now every time I look up at the stars all I can notice is how far away they are." He laughed again,"I've been grounded."

"What are you saying?"

"Roy's the same as I am you know. He told me once that he tried to shoot the sun, but he missed and instead injured someone else. Now the sun sits up there high and mighty laughing at him. He's stuck down here just like me."

He paused for a moment to adjust his mask, acting like it had slipped when it hadn't so much as moved.

"So don't say things like that Wally, you're not useless, me and Roy both need you. While we're both down here you better be finding a way to get me the suns autograph."

Wally's face broke into a small smile as he finally understood what Robin was trying to tell him. "Why don't I just build you guys a staircase so you can get the autograph yourself?"

"You better make it a freaking escalator while you're at it." Robin told "I don't do stairs, why do you think I jump off so many roofs?"

Both boys descended into a fit of laughter as Artemis quickly closed the laptop. A strange feeling pooled in her gut that she quickly recognized as guilt. She had just eavesdropped on a private moment between the two of them that neither had wanted her to hear.

Despite everything she couldn't help but wonder what Robin was talking about. She had the feeling this went beyond him being an acrobat. She had the suspicion Wally knew, in fact he probably knew Robins true identity, Roy's as well.

A sudden pang of loneliness shook her. They were team mates, her friends, and her family. Why didn't she know a single thing about them? It had been okay before with the mutual understanding everyone had their own life to live outside of this, but realizing now that Robin, Roy and Wally had broken that understanding for the sake of friendship made her feel left out.

But Artemis quickly shook these thoughts out of her head. This wasn't first grade, she wasn't ten, and she didn't need to be involved in their little clique, especially one that stabbed their other friends in the back.

As much as she hated to admit it, the more evidence they found the more it pointed to the three boys going rough.

 **Sorry if the last scene got kind of emotionalishly (is that a word?) It took me two hours to write the last part because I kept accidently making one of them sound like a whiney crybaby. I think Artemis's sadness is valid because she is just realizing now she wasn't as close to them as she thought. They were willing to break the rules for each other and let them into their lives but they weren't willing to do it for her,(I don't think Wally and Robin will see it that way) But that's how she's looking at it because I think after everything that's happened to her she has acceptance issues. Anyways please review! I hope you liked it. Next chapter will hopefully have a flashback to Robin stabbing Kaldur in the back.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Four months ago: Mission in Rainforest**

The team had been sent to a mission to stop drug traders. It was an easy job, in and out in only a few hours. At least it was supposed to be. For whatever reason Robin and Wally didn't look ready, they looked almost scared which was unusual for them. Wally was going to assist the team in the take down while Robin and Kaldur were in charge of the stealth surveillance. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. The team had finished their part and were waiting for Aqualad to radio them when things started to go awry.

It took about half an hour of waiting for them to realize that something was wrong. Wally was the first to volunteer to go look for them. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time but they knew better now. That was the last time they saw Robin and Wally until they invaded the tower months later.

It only took twenty minutes after Wally had left for the team to realize something had gone horribly wrong. So they began to desperately search the forest, prepared to find three gravely injured bodies. But ironically enough they only found one. Kaldur was laying on his stomach, breathing roughly. As they had rushed him back to the ship he told them the story of Robin's betrayal. Kaldur was distracted with scouting out the enemy's base and Robin had taken that opportunity to attack him from behind. He couldn't remember anything after that as Robin had knocked him out and left him to bleed out in the forest. Which had almost happened. Robin had missed an artery by 3 centimeters and the results left Kaldur alive, but in the hospital for three weeks.

.

 **Downtown Metropolis 11:00 Am**

 **.**

"Dude, are you seriously still working?" Wally asked in annoyed disbelief as he looked between his friend and his laptop. "Can't you give it a rest for like ten minutes?"

Robin frowned as he looked up still continuing to type. He knew Wally was nervous, beyond nervous in fact. They both were, with good reason. The two of them were headed to go see their employers in place of Roy. They had no idea how they would react as these were not the kind of men to be trifled with. But if no one showed up they would forfeit their agreement and everything they worked for would be lost. That was something they couldn't afford. So Robin was all set to go in Roy's place but Wally wouldn't hear of it.

So here the two of them were, on the bus speeding towards their emanate doom with Robin typing away. Wally knew Robin had been obsessively working on it since their betrayal all those months ago. He heard the little click of keys late at night and into the early morning of the day. But every time he questioned Dick about it he would just brush it off with a tired laugh.

"You know I don't need sleep KF."

But Wally could beg to differ as day after day the dark smudges under his friends eyes grew larger and larger. He yawned more as well and he was getting less and less coherent. They were small changes, things most people wouldn't notice. But Wally was his best friend and he sure as hell noticed. He understood how important this was but at the same time he wasn't willing to give up any of his friends for this stupid cause.

"I'll be fine," Dick said predictably with a small smirk.

"And you're not freaking out?"

"I don't freak out," He reminded him, sounding strangely like batman in that moment. "Besides there's nothing about our situation that can be fixed with worrying.

"Of course you don't," Wally said sarcastically finally sitting down besides his friend. The two of them sat in tense silence for a few moments before Robin one again spoke.

"Come on it's our stop." He folded his laptop up and stowed it away in his backpack. "We shouldn't be late."

"Heavens forbid we keep them waiting," Wally said with a nervous laugh as he dawdled behind a little ways.

"You know you don't have to come right? It might be better if someone stays behind with Roy in case something goes wrong here."

Wally laughed again, "not a chance in hell, come on lets go."

Dick opened his mouth to argue but snapped it shut again when he realized it was pointless. No matter how scared Wally was he was never going to admit it. Short of knocking him out and cuffing him to a street sign it didn't look like there was anything he could do. So instead he led the way as the two of them navigated the busy streets, sticking to crowded areas to avoid being singled out. Until finally they came to a rather unremarkable building. It was made with ugly red bricks and had graffiti on the side. It looked rather like a rundown office building. Which was the entire point of keeping your evil lair in the home turf of Superman.

The two of them walked through the first door, into the entrance way and waited for the secretary to buzz them through. She gave them a tired glance over before carelessly releasing the second door and letting them into the lobby. The inside was just as dull and rundown as the outside as well as its suffocating feeling from the white wash walls, puke colored carpets with coffee stains and dull green drapes.

"We're here to see Mr. De Frey."

She stared at them for a second as if wondering what two kids were doing here before suddenly remembering she didn't get paid enough to ask questions. "Take the elevator to the third floor."

"Thank you," Wally said politely as he hurried to catch his friend. As the two of them got in the narrow elevator Wally shivered.

"This place gives me the creeps, it's so claustrophobic. This can't be their base right? I mean look at it."

Dick frowned at the tiny rattling elevator as it shuttered upwards, struggling to take them to the third floor. He had to agree with Wally on this one, this was defiantly no place for a criminal organization who were bent to taking over the world. He and Roy had gone over the blueprints to try and see if they had a secret basement or what not, but the entire building was built on sheer bedrock. This building must just be a red herring to throw off anyone who decides to investigate. The real base must be somewhere else.

As the elevator reached the third floor and the doors slid open they were greeted by two armed guards and the barrel of the machine guns.

Wally put his hands up as Robin narrowed his eyes defensively. But before anybody could make the first move the guards were called off.

"At ease, men these two are my guests today."

The guards reluctantly lowered their weapons as a man with tan skin and black hair walked over to them. "I'm so glad the two of you could join us, I'll assume your friend Red Arrow couldn't make it." The man spoke with a slight accent which he tried to conceal.

"Mr. De Fray I assume," Robin said pushing his sunglasses higher on his nose. Wally subconsciously followed suit, feeling naked without his mask.

"Red Arrow is incapacitated at the moment so we had no choice but to go in his place." Robin said with a cocky grin that was usually only reserved to annoy villains.

"And the two of you as well?"

"Safety in numbers," Robin argued back, "you know we all want to make it out of this alive, we can't be too careful."

"How right you are," De Frey agreed as he signaled to his guards who sprung to life once again. The two boys grunted as they were harshly slammed against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Wally asked, speaking up for the first time as Robin signaled for him to stop struggling.

"Just a routine weapons search, nothing out of the ordinary," He assured them calmly watching A\as the guards patted the two of them up and down meticulously searching for any type of concealed weapon. Their grip tightened on Robin as they found his utility belt under his shirt. His eyes once again narrowed but he didn't resist as they took it away.

"Now now, what were you planning to do with this?" De Frey scolded as the guards handed the belt to him, "it's full of some very dangerous stuff.

"You were the ones who decided to partner with us," Wally said his cheek pressed painfully against the cold wall, "So don't start treating us like children now."

"It's my belt, I never go anywhere without it, "Robin said tensely as if the thought of being without it made him cringe.

"Yes, yes of course you crazy bat people. You must forgive me if I hold on to it for now, you will get it back later." He signaled to the guards to let the boys go. "Now, if you will follow me we can begin to discuss your future."

As the two of them were released adn Wally glared rubbing his sore wrists but there was nothing he could do beyond that. Robin fell into step besides him his shoulders tense at the loss of his belt. It was something both of them had been expecting but at the same time he still felt naked without it.

De Fray led them to his office, a large room that was distinctly nicer than the rest of the building. He gestured for the two of them to sit but simply shrugged when they refused.

"I must say I am impressed with your progress so far, the two of you have overcome every obstacle we have given you so far. As we move into the final stage of the process our need for you will become greater. In due time you three might even be brought to the real headquarters. But before that we have to be completely sure that you are loyal to us."

Wally kept his mouth shut not willing to risk setting this man off. Robin understood crazy people psychology better than he did.

"As we have told you before we aren't loyal to you," Robin said crossing his arms, "The three of us are only getting involved as a means to better our situation. We all want to survive this and drop off the map together where neither heroes nor the enemies that we made can find us. The only way we can do that is with the money and protection your company is willing to give us. The only thing we are loyal to is the opportunity to escape this horrible game of tug of war we were dragged into."

"Oh, and what do you mean by that, I thought heroes were martyrs by birth." De Fray said with a small smile.

"Not all of us," Robin said as his hands clenched into fists at his side, "the others are simply expected to be, it's a suicidal game of cat and mouse."

Wally watched the man very carefully, looking for any indication of hostility. But his face was impossible to read under that stone cold smile we wore.

"We'll then I guess that fair, you uphold your end and we will uphold ours, then we both go our separate ways and never bother each other again."

"After you pay us," Wally cut in sharply.

"Aright then, in that case I need the three of you to do something very important for me."

"Which would be?"

"I need you distract the Justice League for us, draw their attention away and occupy them so we are free to move about."

"Are you seriou…..." Wally begun to say but was cut off by a hand from Robin.

"We'll do it," He promised, "but we will need assurance you aren't going to double cross us."

De Fray nodded thoughtfully, "I can admired bravery, but caution I can relate to. But you boys must stop thinking of us as Villains, we just want what is best for the world."

"We don't care if your common thugs or angels, as long as you keep up your end, "Wally cut in quickly growing tired of this man's ego issues.

His eyes narrowed in anger at being cut off but he didn't say anything, "very well, in due time I will show you the base and the super computer as a reassurance if we betray you, you are free to share the information with your so called heroes. But in exchange I need the same promise from you.

"You want us to show you the Justice League headquarters?" Wally asked in disbelief.

"Something like that he said vaguely, we can work the details out later, what do you say?"

Wally opened his mouth to tell him no way before Robin cut him off.

"Fine" He said holding out his arm for his belt which the man passed to a guard reluctantly.

"Well, then I'm glad we could come to an understanding, it was a pleasure to meet you boys after hearing so much about you, I am sure we will see a lot of each other in the future."

Wally caught Robin's eyes as the two turned to leave but he ignored his friend instead heading towards the office door.

"And boys," Called De Fray, "If you betray me death will be the least of your worries."

Wally shivered as he followed Robin down the hall and back into the tiny elevator. He could sense the venom in the man's voice and had no doubt he would do what he claimed to do. There was no turning back now, he was sure the same gruesome fait awaited them if they failed. They would just have to make sure that nothing went wrong then.


	7. Chapter 7

"This is getting us nowhere?" Artemis complained hotly.

Besides her super boy nodded in silent agreement.

"You two must have patience," Kaldur chided kindly. Artemis wondered where his seemingly endless supply of calm came from. Did it just go along with being from the ocean?

The four of them were currently meeting in public, out of the watching range of their mentors. They had agreed some fresh air would do them some good and were currently going over the video files at the park. Unfortunately they all had turned up nothing. Even after all this time they were still just kicking up dirt.

As much as Artemis hated to admit it they were inexperienced. Robin was the first side kick, LIKE EVER! He had been doing this longer then all of them. Red Arrow was a close second and then Wally and Kaldur. This was a fact she usually tried to ignore but right now it was getting pretty hard. Bottom line was these kid didn't mess around. What they really needed was someone who thought like them, paranoid, overly cautious and a born detective.

"Don't give up hope yet," Kaldur reminded her, reading her facial expression carefully.

She nodded in silent agreement as she leaned back into the soft grass, staring up at the sky above them.

'Wally, Robin, where on earth are you?' She thought closing her eyes.

"I can help you guys?" A new voice said.

Artemis shot up, her hands immediately going for the quiver on her back, only to remember it wasn't there. She realized she must have looked ridiculous and took her hands down, turning her attention to the new comer.

It was a girl, a pretty one at that. She had flaming red hair, blue eyes and soft features. She was a medium height and lean to the bone. It took a second but Artemis recognized her.

"Your Barbara Gordon!"

The rest of the team glanced at Artemis in surprise so she continued.

"We go to high school together." What she didn't mention was the fact she only recognized her because of her academic and athletic achievements. There wasn't a week that went by that her name wasn't mentioned somewhere in the announcements or newsletter for winning some award.

Barbara nodded, crossing her hands over her chest with a defiant stance that looked so familiar somehow.

"Yes, and your Artemis, "She responded without a moment of hesitation. She turned to the group, "And all of you need my help."

"Why exactly?" Conner asked annoyed.

"To find Robin of course," She said fixing her blue eyes on them evenly.

That defiantly did the trick. The four of them sprung to life, gaping in surprise. They all seemed to answer at the same time, only with different answers.

"How do you know that?" Conner demanded while Megan feverishly denied it.

Kaldur simply told her firmly he was mistaken.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Artemis said when she got her breath back.

"You guys?" She said for the first time without the stony edge, "I am the commissioners daughter, being friends with Robin sort of goes along with the territory."

That did make sense the more they thought about it. At some point Artemis had known who her dad was but she had long since forgotten. Since batman worked closely with Gordon it wasn't that strange to assume Robin and Barbara had met along the way.

"So why tell us this?" Kaldur said carefully.

She frowned sending them a look that clearly said they had offended her. "Aqualad, Miss Martian, Superboy and Artemis, am I right?"

She assumed from their silence she was, "I'm a detectives daughter remember?"

"Robin told you?"

She shook her head, "We go to the same school Artemis, it wasn't that hard to put the pieces together. The rest of you were shots in the dark. But since you all seemed to fit it wasn't that hard."

"Prove it," Conner said angrily, "Prove you know Robin."

She bit her lip as if debating. "If I do will you let me help? I can't do any more on my own."

"No promises," Artemis said icily, she was still annoyed that her cover was blown so easily. "Give us proof and we will consider not reporting you to the Justice league." That had been a bit of a stretch but she was trying to frighten her. Unfortunately Barbara didn't look the least bit scared.

"Fine," She said sitting beside them swinging her backpack down on the lawn. She pulled out her computer putting it in the middle of the circle.

"What the heck is this going to prove?" Conner asked grumpily.

She ignored him as she searched through her saved files. Obviously finding what she wanted she handed them the device.

It was a video clip, it dated back nearly a year ago. At first nothing happened, it was just Barbara sitting at her desk doing her homework. However a loud knock made her jump. Startled she got up, checking her window. When she saw who it was she relaxed, crossing the room to unlock it.

Sure enough Robin slipped inside, silent as a cat. He was dressed in his full costume and was covered in scrapes as well as a bit of blood, most likely not his own.

Artemis couldn't help bust gasp. Barbara hadn't been lying, she and Robin honestly were friends. Enough for him to break into her window after patrol. A small part of her heart hurt seeing him again, acting normal like nothing was wrong.

"Hiya Babs," He greeted with a smirk.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Are you asking or telling?"

"You're going to mess up my film project," She complained gestured to the camera, despite her words a smile was playing on her lips and she didn't sound very annoyed in the least.

He laughed at that flopping on her bed, "yea right! You can turn in anything and you will probably still get an A."

Artemis had wanted to see more of the clip but Barbara quickly slammed the laptop, not willing to reveal more then she had to.

"See, were friends, I wasn't lying."

Artemis paused for a moment considering.

"Alright, you're in."


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry guys. I'm still alive. I promise I will update more regularly one day. This story will get finished I swear on it. I love writing it so much.**

 **xxx**

 **Gotham 1:00 am (A few weeks before the event)**

 _Barbara was sitting at her desk doing her homework. However a loud knock made her jump. Startled she got up, checking her window. When she recognized the figure she relaxed, crossing the room to unlock it. Dick slid into the window like a cat. He was dressed in his full costume and was covered in scrapes as well as a bit of blood, most likely not his own._

 _No matter how many times she told him to use the door like a normal person he never listened. Then again despite how much her dad loved Dick she wasn't sure how he would feel if he knew how often he slept over. Which was a ridiculous concept to Barbara because…. It was Dick. Sure they had kissed when they were ten but he was like her little brother….and they were ten._

 _"_ _Hiya Babs," He greeted with a smirk, breaking her train of thought_

 _"_ _Do you have any idea what time it is?"_

 _"_ _Are you asking or telling?"_

 _"_ _You're going to mess up my film project," She complained gestured to the camera, despite her words a smile was playing on her lips and she didn't sound very annoyed in the least._

 _He laughed at that flopping on her bed, "yea right! You can turn in anything and you will probably still get an A."_

 _"_ _Look who's talking Dick! You're like the mascot of teachers pets."_

 _He shrugged casually sitting beside her on the bed. "Apparently being a pathetic mathlete is a highly respected profession in the teacher world."_

 _She smiled at that. The two of them were best friends but they were also rivals. In both academics and athletics. He pushed her to be her best, all in order to keep up with him. It was a perfect system, Barbara was nothing if not competitive. All her life she had been the best regardless of what it was. Still there was no sport in competing with people you already knew you could beat. Then Dick came along and things got real, being best now meant something completely different._

 _"_ _How did patrol go?" She asked turning around in order to give him some privacy to change back into civvies._

 _"_ _Same old." He told her over the sound of his utility belt hitting the floor. "You know how it is, for every five you catch there is another ten just waiting to take their place."_

 _She frowned sympathetically finally turning back around. He was once again fully clothed in civvies._

 _"_ _Are you sleeping over?"_

 _He frowned looking out the window, "Nah, Bruce will probably notice if I'm not back by mourning."_

 _Barbara rolled her eyes at that. If she didn't know him better she would swear he was a robot. He seemed to run on nothing at all. He ate very little and slept next to nothing, yet somehow he was always operating at 100% capacity. How he found time to be captain of the debate team, treasurer of the choir, chairman of the math club, student council president and somehow be vice-captain of young Justice while still remaining Robin was beyond her. (and yes, she did know about young justice.) He truly was talented. And if there was one thing Barbara loved it was a challenge._

 _"_ _Well in case you forgot we have debate club gathering tomorrow and I want you to be fully rested when I cream you."_

 _He smiled at that automatically reaching up as she tossed him a blanket. She nodded contently as she got into bed, glad for once he didn't put up further argument._

 _"_ _Night Bat boy."_

 _"_ _Goodnight Babs."_

Gotham 5:00

Barbara bit her lip at the memory. Why was she thinking about that now? She needed to focus. Sure she missed Dick like crazy but that wasn't going to help her. She would get him back not matter what. She turned back to the group of hero's not so much batting an eye at their look of anger and determination. The dark haired one especially was giving her a particularly nasty glare. A lesser person would have trembled but she was not a lesser person.

"What do you propose?" Artemis asked cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Super boy argued angrily. "We can't trust her."

"And information trade," Barbara told them crossing her arms. "We compare notes and then go from there."

"You think we are going to let you help us?" Super boy asked incredulously, "We don't even know you."

"Super boy enough," Kaldur commented as Megan came to put her hand on his shoulder, sensing his growing anger.

"We all saw the tape," Artemis argued, "This girl can help." She turned back to address Barbara, "Now spill."

Barbara's lips twitched with annoyance but she let it go quickly. If they wanted this to work someone would have to start trusting them soon.

"Robins my best friend." She began cautiously.

She watched as Artemis's lips tightened. A clear sign she didn't believe her. She put her hands on her hips ready to go on the defense.

Apparently Conner beat Artemis to the punch. "I thought Kid Flash was his best friend." He replied tensely.

Barbara blinked not expecting that. Still she quickly regained her composer answering with a clear voice. "Well you can have more than one best friend?" She said, sounding like a grade schooler even to her own ears. Still it was true. Sure Kid Flash, Speedy and Robin were tight, no denying that. They had known each other for forever. But Barbara had known Dick Greyson had even became Robin. So at the moment this meant she was the most qualified to find him. And at the moment she was sick of useless worrying, it was time to do something for her friend.

"Here's the deal," she said cutting them off. "I know that kid like the back of my hand. Sure I might just be an ordinary civilian but I can assure you guys of one thing." She mused meeting each of their eyes. "My friend would never betray you."

"How can you be sure?" Megan asked uncertainty in her eyes.

Barbara felt a spark of anger in her at the question, the hesitant faces around her. These people were souse to be a team. Team members didn't doubt each other. At least they weren't souse to. But considering everything that must have transpired between them a small part of her understood. Still she had to make them understand, make them see who Robin really was without revealing him.

"Because he told me about you guys." She said. "And you should have heard the way he talked, the way both of them talked about you."

"You mean Wally?" Artemis asked her eyes large with disbelief.

Barbara smirked at the sudden attention. That certainly was interesting. Robin had mentioned something was going on between the two of them. Whether they realized it or not.

"I just told you I was best friends with Robin. You can't exactly get one without the other. They are sort of a package deal. So yea I know him pretty well too."

"What about Red Arrow?"

"Speedy?" She asked flinging her hair over her shoulder haphazardly. "I don't know him as well as the other two. He for the most part is busy. He generally tried to stay away from me, he only opens up to Rob and KF. But I still know him a bit… mostly from stories. But lately he's been a bit…" She trailed off her eyes widening in realization.

"It was Seedy!"

"What?" Kaldur asked confused.

She turned to them, her thoughts racing at a hundred miles an hour. "I don't know how yet but this has something to do with Speedy. He went MIA a few months back. Since he does this often we just thought it was another mission. But when he did finally come back…"

"That's when Robin and Kid Flash betrayed us." Artemis finished for her.

Barbara nodded, a determined look on her face. They were finally making progress. This was a start.

'Please tell me you know what you're doing Dick.' She thought desperately.

 **Metropolis 4:30 A.M.**

"You guys did what?"

Wally frowned as he tried to keep him pinned to table.

"Stop moving so much man you're going to open an injury."

"You could have gotten hurt, of even killed."

Robin smirked as he watched the two from the corner. Roy's anger was just another way of saying he was worried about the two of them. Although his protective streak did occasionally get in the way of things. They had gotten back to the apartment only to find a very annoyed Roy off his pain pills.

"Well they didn't and we are fine." Wally promised sighing in distress.

"You guys don't know them like I do…." Roy trailed off realizing they were heading into dangerous territory.

They stood in silence for a few moments before his gaze turned to Robin. "This was your doing wasn't it?"

He shrugged innocently, "Always have a backup plan."

"But what if said backup plan gets you killed?"

"Wally was there as well. He insisted on it."

"I couldn't just let you go alone Rob." Wally piped up.

"In this together," he reminded him.

"In this together." Robin parroted a sly grin on his face.

"You guys are going to be the death of me." Roy growled.

The two of them grinned mischievously at him.

"Fine fine, whatever. In this together." Roy said a small smile on his face. "I swear you guys will be the death of me."


End file.
